Hi everybody! I met up the Sunday before last with a friend of mine (Helen, who recently did a guest post for me), and did a Mac haul (my first ever in-store!).
My Mac love has been quite recent, as I always kind of pooh-poohed the range, thinking so many limited edition releases from a brand could never be a good thing, an it must just be over-hyped. Oh how wrong I was.
I ended up buying a few blushes to try from a BrandAlley sale (keep an eye out, they do discounted Mac products every so often) and it was love at first swipe so to speak.
So when I was in Cambridge, and saw a Mac store, I bodily dragged poor Helen in, determined to try out as many products as possible.
The first item I wanted to try was a new blush. I have something of an obsession with Mac blushes, and am swiftly creating a major stash. I didn't own a creme blush, and wanted to try it out as I find powders, while lovely, often don't last very long on me, and I thought maybe a creme consistency would have more staying power.I ended up buying Mac's Cremeblend Blush in LadyBlush, a beautiful dusky pink with a little peach added in.
Now before I go any further, I have to mention one thing: The Sales Assistant who 'helped' me was terrible. Absolutely terrible. Part of the reason I was so excited about buying from a Mac store was that I'd heard from so many friends how great the SAs are. How helpful they are, how they've been properly trained in make-up, so actually know what they're talking about. Oh the disappointment.
Deep down, I'm never sure I've quite chosen the right shade, so whenever I go into a store, there's a part of me that just wants someone to sit me down, pick out a product, and say 'THIS. This is your perfect product!'. In this little fantasy the SA applies it, shows me the mirror, and TA-DA. I am suddenly transformed into a Goddess, and leave the shop never having to buy another item of make up again.
Please tell me that's not just me?!
So on my way into the shop, this particular fantasy was going into overdrive. I'd just been paid a bonus from an event I'd done, and was more than willing to go wild (with buying make up. Not generally wild - I didn't go in with the intention of dancing on the tables and stuffing cash down the Sales Assistants' knickers or anything like that).
I walked in, wandered around for a bit, trying to catch someone's eye to no success - why is it that whenever you want to be left alone to browse, all the SAs suddenly really want to help you, and when you actually want to be helped, they don't want to know?!
I walked in, wandered around for a bit, trying to catch someone's eye to no success - why is it that whenever you want to be left alone to browse, all the SAs suddenly really want to help you, and when you actually want to be helped, they don't want to know?!
So I picked out a few things myself, and toddled over to the nearest SA, asking if it would be alright to try some of it on. This is no exaggeration, she acted as if I'd asked her to sell me her first born child. I've never met a more reluctant, crabby SA in my life.
Conversation as follows:
Me: 'Could I try some of this on please?'
SA: 'oh.....Which one?'
Me: 'Erm...I was kind of hoping to try all of it, if that's alright?' (I had two blushes and a quad palette in my hand)
SA: '......ok then.' *leads me over to the make up station*
In total silence she applied a blush to each cheek.
SA: 'Right, which one do you want?'
Me: 'Ah, I'm not sure, they both look nice, what do you think?'
SA: 'I don't know'
I kind of awkwardly looked at myself in the mirror for a bit, pretending to contemplate, while she stood in stony silence.
I eventually went up to Helen to ask her opinion, at which point the lovely SA chatting to her gave me a complete pro's and con's list of the two blushes I was wearing.
I decided on the Cremeblush you see before you!
It's a gorgeous colour, and the (nice) SA described it as 'the perfect natural flush for your skintone'. It is very very natural, a kind of my-cheeks-but-better look, and being a creme blush, it's very easy to build the colour to get the intensity you want. And I was right, this is a lot more long lasting than powder, so I find myself having to touch up a lot less!
In the swatch I have applied the blush very heavily, so you can see the colour more easily, and just how much intensity you can get. This retails online and in-store for £17.50.
So, I went back to grouchy SA and asked if I coud try on the other item, a Mac Pro Colour x 4 Quad that had been pre made, named Call Me Bubbles.
The colours in this quad were beautiful, full of coppery pinks, which I'm loving for Spring at the minute.
You put the four shades in separately, which is neat as it means the palette is re-useable when you run out.
Conversation following request to try on quad:
SA: 'Which shade do you want to try?'
Me: 'Well I was hoping to try all four? I wanted to see how all four looked together? Could you show me what kind of a look I could create with the quad?'
SA: 'Right. Well, the pale white can be used as an all-over base. You can apply the two pinks in the crease, and then the gold over your brow bone for a contrast'
In fairness, she applied it like this, and it did look really nice, so I decided to take it.
At which point, the SA, instead of applying shadow to my other eye to even up the look, or reapply my other cheek with a matching colour, just wiped off the make up she'd applied. Amazingly enough, I left a Mac store with less make up on than I'd gone in with ^^;;;;;;
I took my purchases and left as quickly as I could. What's worse though, is that when I got home and looked on the Mac site, I realised she had majorly over charged me on the palette!!
On the Mac site, this quad is £35. When I asked her how much it was in store, she said it was £48!! As the stalls don't have the price of anything listed, and it was a quad with four separate shadows, I didn't question it, thinking, 'ah, it's mac, they're always pretty pricey'. I did balk at the price, and it meant I didn't purchase anything else, but I went in with the intention of blowing my bonus, so decided to take it despite the price tag.
Urgh, annoyingly there's no point in even querying this. The Mac store is in Cambridge, so an hour and a half train ride away, and I stupidly threw out my receipt on the train ride home!
Bah, oh well, SA blues aside, the make up I bought is beautiful, and Mac is undoubtedly very high quality.
The shades in the quad are (from top left going clockwise) Fresh Daisy, Full of Flavour, Brash, and Call Me Bubbles.
Fresh Daisy is orange with a Frost finish, Full of Flavour is coral with a Matte finish, Brash is a frosty reddish-copper with a Veluxe-Pearl finish, and Call Me Bubbles is light tan with a Satin finish.
This is a look along the lines of what the SA did for me, but with *much* heavier application so you can see the colours more clearly. In the shop it was applied with a stipple brush and a far lighter hand, so was much more natural. I'd probably only wear colours this bold for going out, or on the weekends if I was letting my inner child run free.
Verdict: My experience was somewhat ruined by a bad SA, but in all honesty, Mac has great quality products, and many of my friends have repeatedly said how great their SAs are. I think this SA just made a mistake with the price and was having a really bad day, so I will probably venture into a Mac store sometime in the future. The very distant future.
Emma
xxx
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